While city council focuses on the plight of the Gardiner Expressway, the Urban Land Institute asked designers, students and planners to come up with ideas for connecting Toronto with its waterfront for a contest designed to generate ideas and present them in a public space.

“Everybody’s got an idea about this, so let’s get them out there — let’s get the conversation going,” said Sean Lawrence, an architect and one of the people who spearheaded the competition.

The entries have been on display in buildings downtown, inviting passersby to take in the suggestions.

“The first was to see what ideas could provide both simple and inexpensive solutions to complex problems. Creativity and their ability to transform existing spaces and places was also fundamental,” said Bedford. “The second was all about challenging conventional thinking with a bold set of ideas.”

More than one project wanted to turn back the clock on waterfront development, extending some parts of Lake Ontario to Front St., the original location of the shoreline.

Inundation, a plan that imagines Toronto in 2114, seeks to manipulate the lake frontage by creating seven water channels that push the lakefront north, and proposes converting the rail corridor to parkland.

“Keeping in mind the visionary nature of the competition, for our submission the team wanted to reference the historic shoreline along Front Street, essentially peel back the layers of development that have contributed to make Toronto what it is today,” wrote the team from Dillon Consulting Ltd.

“We wanted to promote a concept that we felt was deserving and of high enough quality to reflect the world-class city at the heart of this study.”

Kyle Miller, a 27-year-old planning student at the University of Toronto, thought his idea was a little wild at the beginning. He proposes a gondola along the waterfront, stretching from Ontario Place to the Don River in the east.

“It started as a crazy blue-sky idea, and the more we thought about it the better sense it started to make and I’m almost a believer now,” said Miller.

He translated his contest entry into a paper for a school class and crunched some numbers. He found some inspiration in Medellin, Columbia, where two gondola lines integrate seamlessly with the local transit system.

Concocted with fellow planning student Matthew Kelling, the gondola would get commuters from one end to the other in 25 minutes, Miller said. “Right now . . . there’s basically no continuous transit that could do it in anywhere close to 25 minutes.”

The contest also welcomed site-specific ideas that would transform specific elements of the waterfront lands.

Carolyn Rowan, a 23-year-old planning student, and her roommate, Robyn Whitwam, came up with RevAMP which reimagines the Gardiner Expressway at the foot of York St. and Queens Quay W.

“What we were envisioning was to give the space back its purpose,” said Rowan. “It was sort of inspired by the revitalization of Queens Quay . . . but also what’s trendy right now, like the (New York City) High Line.”

Their plan includes the potential for a boardwalk-style design with stores along the old ramp, spaces to show movies and a recreational area.

The Urban Land Institute, a non-profit that focuses on land use, will award $5,000 in prizes on Wednesday night. The submissions can be viewed on the organization’s website and will be put on display at the Eaton Centre after the awards are given out.

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